Thaindian News

Shimla, June 10 (IANS) Thanks to heavy rains, Himachal Pradesh has escaped its periodic and often devastating forest fires this time.

Forest officials said that plentiful rainfall in the last monsoon, the extended winter and frequent spells of rains now have saved huge tracts of wooded areas and grasslands from turning into tinderbox.

The awareness drives have also saved the precious flora and fauna.

According to official estimates, 22 percent or 8,267 sq km of the total forest area in the hill state, mainly in the middle and low hills, is fire prone.

A majority of the fires are reported from pine forests located up to an altitude of 5,500 feet in Sirmaur, Shimla, Kangra and Mandi districts. During summer, the trees shed pine needles that are highly inflammable.

“This summer no major forest fire has been reported. Till June 7 only 111 cases were reported against 837 last year,” Avtar Singh, chief conservator (forest protection and fire control), told IANS.

He said forests in 971 hectares have been destroyed from April 1 to June 7. Last year, in the same period, fires gobbled up forest wealth in 7,536 hectares. The total forest loss in 2010 was 7,654 hectares.

Singh attributed the decline in fire incidents this year to high moisture content in the soil and the department’s initiatives to check fires.

With the onset of summer in April, the department launched an awareness drive in the villages prone to fire.

“The villagers were educated about the legal provisions of the Indian Forest Act that bound them to protect the forests and private grasslands located near their villages,” Singh said.

“Secondly, the department undertook drives to check littering of dry leaves and pine needles along state and national highways. Before the onset of summer, 6,100 km of roads were cleared of dry forest waste.

“This certainly helped reducing fire incidents,” he added.

According to the meteorological office, the state got plentiful rainfall during last monsoon.

“The state experienced 16 percent more than the normal rainfall in 2010, compared to a 36 percent deficit in 2009,” said Manmohan Singh, director of the meteorological office.

He said all 12 districts in the state, except Lahaul and Spiti, got normal to excess rainfall.

Even in winter, regular rainfall in mid and low hills had kept the soil’s moisture content high.

“This summer has been quite cool due to frequent … rainfall,” Singh said.

This year the southwest monsoon, he said, was also expected to arrive in the state well on time around June 20.

According to the State Forest Report of 2005 published by the Forest Survey of India, Himachal Pradesh has 14,752 sq km of forest area, out of which 1,097 sq km is very dense forest.

The lush green valleys and snow-capped mountains of the state are home to 36 percent of India’s species of birds. Of the 1,228 species reported in India, 447 have been recorded in Himachal.

Similarly, 77 species of mammals have been recorded by the Himachal State Council for Science, Technology and Environment.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)